Method and apparatus for improving sequential writes to RAID-6 devices

摘要

A method is provided for reducing the number of transactions for multi-segmented host system write operations in a RAID 6 device. The method comprises sending a write command for new multiple data segments to a plurality of data drives in the RAID 6 device via a RAID 6 controller. The RAID 6 device has data segments stored in stripes on the data drives and parity drives within the RAID 6 device. Parity is calculated for old data segments, new data segments and old parity on the parity drives to determine a new parity. The new parity is then written to one parity drive of the multiple parity drives within the RAID 6 device, thereby reducing the number of read and write transactions between the controller and the drives within the RAID 6 device.